Conor J. Benson, University of Colorado Bouder, Daniel J. Scheeres, University of Colorado Bouder, William H. Ryan, Magdalena Ridge Observatory – New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Eileen V. Ryan, Magdalena Ridge Observatory – New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Nicholas Moskovitz, Lowell Observatory
Keywords: Retired goesynchronous satellites, light curves, tumbling rotation states
Abstract:
Non-periodic light curve rotation state analysis is conducted for the retired geosynchronous satellite GOES 8. This particular satellite has been observed periodically at the Maui Research and Technology Center as well as Magdalena Ridge and Lowell Observatories since 2013. To extract tumbling periods from the light curves, twodimensional Fourier series fits were used. Torque-free dynamics and the satellite’s known mass properties were then leveraged to constrain the candidate periods. Finally, simulated light curves were generated using a representative shape model for further validation. Analysis of the light curves suggests that GOES 8 transitioned from uniform rotation in 2014 to continually evolving tumbling motion by 2016. These findings are consistent with previous dynamical simulations and support the hypothesis that the Yarkovsky-O’Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (YORP) effect drives rotation state evolution of retired geosynchronous satellites.
Date of Conference: September 19-22, 2017
Track: Poster